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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24615163">And Then We Met Again</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva'>flipflop_diva</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Humor, Awesome Natasha Romanov, BAMF Rosa Diaz, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Established Relationship, F/F, Getting Back Together, Missions Gone Wrong, Natasha Romanov Has Issues, POV Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Stakeout</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:42:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,599</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24615163</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I dreamed the Avengers recruited us!” Amy was saying to Jake. “And I was dating Captain America.” </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“You weren’t dating me?” Jake said.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“It’s Captain America,” Amy told him. “Can you really blame me?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“You can’t, Jake,” Charles piped up. “Who wouldn’t date an Avenger?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“I dated Black Widow,” Rosa said. She hadn’t actually meant to say that out loud. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“You dated Black Widow?” Jake said, his voice way too high for how early it was.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Did I not tell you that before?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“NO!”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Rosa shrugged. “I did. It’s no big deal.”</i>
</p><p>-</p><p>Rosa and Nat used to date. Now they're on a case together. What could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)/Natasha Romanov (Marvel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>139</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Fandom 5K 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>And Then We Met Again</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinlizzy2/gifts">thinlizzy2</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Based on the prompt: <i>Rosa herself was a SHIELD agent at some point, and left for the most mundane reason possible (the copier was ALWAYS out of toner or something). Natasha as her ex (professionally, romantically or both) who still carries a torch</i></p><p>Set somewhere post-Avengers and in some unspecified season of B99.</p><p>I've been wanting to write this pairing forever, so when I saw thinlizzy2 requested it, I shrieked with happiness. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope everyone enjoys!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was perhaps a weird kind of fate that Rosa actually heard what Amy said. She’d been so distracted by Charles’ smell — did he bathe in fish oil before he came to work today? — that she hadn’t put in her earphones and turned up her music on her iPhone the second she’d walked into the staff briefing room like she normally did.</p><p>She had instead just taken her seat behind Jake and Amy, because for some reason everyone always sat in the same spot every single day, and had been casting murderous looks at Charles who had plopped down next to her as though there wasn’t a literal manifestation of the smell surrounding him.</p><p>Amy was chattering away, obviously oblivious to the rancid smell. Rosa normally wouldn’t have paid her any attention whatsoever, but she needed something to concentrate on that wasn’t Charles, and then she heard a word that made her listen a little harder.</p><p>“I dreamed the Avengers recruited us!” Amy was saying to Jake. “And I was dating Captain America.” She smiled a bit dreamily when she said that.</p><p>“You weren’t dating me?” Jake said.</p><p>“It’s Captain America,” Amy told him. “Can you really blame me?”</p><p>“You can’t, Jake,” Charles, who was always listening to Jake and Amy, piped up. “Who wouldn’t date an Avenger?”</p><p>“I dated Black Widow,” Rosa said. She hadn’t actually meant to say that out loud, but, well, she never could pass up an opportunity to see astonishment on the faces of the others. </p><p>And they did not disappoint. In fact, they were gaping at her like fish on dry land. Even their eyes were almost bulging.</p><p>“You dated Black Widow?” Jake said, his voice way too high for how early it was.</p><p>“Did I not tell you that before?”</p><p>“NO!” everyone screamed in unison.</p><p>Rosa shrugged. “I did. It’s no big deal.”</p><p>“It’s no big deal!” Charles was almost shouting. “But when? Where? How?”</p><p>“When I was a SHIELD agent,” Rosa said.</p><p>“You were a SHIELD agent?” Jake stared at her as the others gaped more.</p><p>“I told you that.”</p><p>“You most certainly did not!” Jake said. “How many other careers have you had anyway?”</p><p>“A hundred thirty-three,” Rosa answered automatically. In truth, it was more like thirteen, but she loved messing with these people.</p><p>“You left SHIELD for the Nine-Nine?” Amy said. She sounded amazed. “But why?”</p><p>Rosa shrugged. “The cafeteria there was awful. They tried to serve me frozen chicken nuggets. I can’t work in a place that serves frozen chicken nuggets.”</p><p>“We hear that!” Scully, whose face was covered with tomato sauce from the pizza he and Hitchcock had just ate, spoke up from the back of the room.</p><p>“So, yeah,” Rosa said.  “I’m here. No big deal.”</p><p>The others looked like they wanted to disagree, but at that moment, Captain Holt walked in, and it was hard to tell but he looked a little more serious than normal. He walked to the podium and stood behind it, staring out at them all.</p><p>“We have a very important assignment,” he said, without any preamble whatsoever, and almost everyone in the room sat up just a little straighter, including Rosa. It was important to look anticipatory.</p><p>“For the foreseeable future, we will be partnering with an agent from SHIELD,” Holt continued.</p><p>“No freaking way!” Amy burst out.</p><p>“Are you trolling us?” Jake asked. “Is this one big troll?”</p><p>There was no way Captain Holt was trolling them, but at his words, Rosa felt a weird wave of — apprehension? fear? some weird emotion she couldn’t quite place? — roll through her. But she glared down at her own stomach, like it was its fault she was feeling weird. </p><p>SHIELD had hundreds of agents, she reminded herself. What were the chances? And who would send an Avenger to work with some lowly police officers?</p><p>“Trolling you?” Holt was frowning at Jake. “Is that some new game? You know I don’t play games. This is very serious. One of their best agents will be here to work with us on this.”</p><p>“Tell me it’s Captain America!” Amy shouted.</p><p>“I will do no such thing,” Holt said. “Her name is …” He consulted the notes in front of him. “… Natasha Romanoff.” </p><p>“What?” Rosa couldn’t help herself.</p><p>“No freaking way!” Amy clapped her hands together. Every head in the room, except Holt’s, turned to look at Rosa. She clamped her mouth closed and tried extra hard to look nonchalant about the whole thing.</p><p>“Is there something I should know?” Holt asked.</p><p>“Yes!” Jake said.</p><p>“No,” Rosa said, shooting everyone a glare. “Nothing. We’re happy to work with anyone from SHIELD.”</p><p>“It’s very important we do a good job on this,” Holt said. “We were chosen to help out of all the possible districts.”</p><p>“Why us?” Jake asked. It was a very good question.</p><p>“Why not?” Holt asked back.</p><p>“Do you know what we’re working on SHIELD with?” Rosa said.</p><p>“I do not. But she should be here any minute.”</p><p>
  <i>Shit.</i>
</p><p>Rosa tried hard to pretend that didn’t bother her at all.</p><p>--</p><p>If Rosa hadn’t just told everyone in the Nine-Nine that she and Natasha Romanoff used to date, no one would have believed it. Possibly, they didn’t believe it anyway, but Rosa didn’t think she was that lucky. All her co-workers had an unnatural obsession with getting up in everyone else’s business. Jake was probably already Googling it on his phone.</p><p>Natasha walked in about three minutes after Holt said she would be arriving, all grace and perfection, none of her red curls even slightly out of place. She smiled at all of them (not her real smile, Rosa noticed, but the one she always used out in public) and glanced over Rosa like she had never seen her before in her life.</p><p>It would have annoyed Rosa if that type of thing hadn’t stopped annoying her back when they were dating.</p><p>“As I’m sure Captain Holt told you,” Natasha started, once Holt had introduced her to them, as if none of them knew who the Avengers were (though Rosa wasn’t completely sure Holt knew who the Avengers were), “SHIELD has asked for an NYPD unit to partner with, and they sent me to work undercover with you all.”</p><p>Rosa studied her as she talked. She hadn’t worn her normal SHIELD uniform or her Avengers uniform. She was dressed in an A-line skirt and a white button-down blouse with black heels that made her legs look like they stretched on for miles, if Rosa cared about that type of thing.</p><p>Her hair was shorter than it had been when she and Rosa were dating. Back then, it had hung almost down to her waist, a darker shade of red, but now it was barely past her shoulders and a lot brighter.</p><p>She looked maybe a little older (which secretly pleased Rosa. Not that she would ever tell anyone) and maybe a little more tired, but she also looked almost exactly like the woman Rosa had spent almost a year of her life with.</p><p>Natasha was still talking. “SHIELD has intel to believe that these people have stolen some very high-tech weapons. We’re talking dangerous enough to take out the whole city. My job, and yours with me, is to find who is behind this, where they are hiding and stop them before anyone gets hurt.”</p><p>“Sounds easy enough,” Jake piped up from the front row.</p><p>Natasha’s smiled disappeared, and she glared at him from behind the podium. Jake almost seemed to wither in his seat.</p><p>“It’s not,” she said coldly. “It’s dangerous and very risky and any wrong step could mean the end of thousands of people’s lives.”</p><p>“Okay,” Jake said quietly. “When you put it that way.”</p><p>Captain Holt stepped forward. “You all will do whatever Agent Romanoff requests from you.” He turned to her. “You can have whomever you want.”</p><p>“Thank you,” she said.</p><p>Rosa tried not to look disappointed. It sounded like a career-defining case, but she knew there was no way she was being asked to assist on it, not after everything that had happened between her and Natasha.</p><p>Well, she told herself, it’s probably for the best. Being far away from Natasha was better for both of them.</p><p>--</p><p>“Rosa.” </p><p>Rosa looked up from the files she had been pretending to be completely absorbed in for the last half hour. Natasha was standing in front of her, her expression completely unreadable. </p><p>“Natasha.”</p><p>Rosa had had her own practice at being completely unreadable. </p><p>They looked at each other for a while, neither of them willing to be the one to make the first move. Finally, Natasha nodded, just slightly, turned around and headed off to the other side of the squad room toward the break room, where she was going to be interviewing people to see who would make the best team.</p><p>Rosa looked down at the file in her hand and frowned. Who even was this guy she had been reading about?</p><p>She looked back up at the sound of something — some <i>things</i> — sliding across the floor. Terry, Jake, Amy and Charles, all still perched on their chairs, were surrounding her desk, like the pack of vultures they were.</p><p>“Yeah, you’re going to have to give us a little backstory here,” Jake said.</p><p>“No, I am not,” Rosa said.</p><p>“Oh, come on, Rosa!” Charles practically whined. “That’s the Black Widow in there! And you two <i>dated</i>. And now there was …” He waved his hands around in the air like he was trying to bat off an angry ghost. “That,” he finally finished.</p><p>Rosa glared at him. At all of them really.</p><p>“Yeah, really, you do need to give us something here,” Amy said.</p><p>Rosa looked up at Terry. “What happened to all your beliefs in privacy?”</p><p>Terry shrugged. “I’m sorry! You know how much Terry likes gossip!”</p><p>“Ughh.” Rosa rolled her eyes. She really didn’t like sharing her personal business with these goons … except maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. They would be on her side and that could only help. Just in case something went down or whatever. Or Natasha tried something. Rosa didn’t put it past her.</p><p>“Fine,” Rosa finally said. “We dated, I broke up with her, she tried to kill me. Now we’re here.”</p><p>“You <i>broke up with her</i>!” Jake practically shrieked.</p><p>“That’s what you took away from that?” Amy asked him.</p><p>“She broke up with an Avenger!”</p><p>“She wasn’t an Avenger when we were dating,” Rosa said. “She was just a former assassin turned SHIELD agent.”</p><p>“No wonder she tried to kill you,” Charles said knowingly.</p><p>“She wasn’t going around assassinating people,” Rosa said. </p><p>“But she tried to assassinate you?”</p><p>Rosa shrugged. “It’s complicated,” she said.</p><p>“Okay, okay,” Jake said. “But you broke up with her. Why?”</p><p>“I was leaving SHIELD. I didn’t want to be dating another agent. It wasn’t serious.”</p><p>
  <i>“You quit? You’re leaving?” Natasha stood in front of her, looking stricken. Rosa kept packing her bag, pretending she didn’t see. Pretending she didn’t realize Natasha was letting her see.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“I can’t do this anymore.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“I can’t do this without you!”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Rosa pretended she didn’t hear how vulnerable she sounded. “You’ll be fine. You’re smarter and deadlier than anyone else here.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“But …”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Rosa looked up. She pretended she didn’t know Natasha looked afraid. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>“You’ll be fine,” she told her. “I gotta go.”</i>
</p><p>“If it wasn’t serious, then why did she try to kill you?” Amy said.</p><p>“Yes, Terry wants to know that too.”</p><p>“She had issues.”</p><p>“I feel like there’s a lot more to this story than you’re telling us,” Jake said.</p><p>“Terry agrees.”</p><p>“Oooh,” Jake said. “Maybe this can be our side case. Investigating the truth about the relationship between Black Widow Natasha Romanoff and Black Belt Rosa Diaz.”</p><p>“Rosa has a black belt?” Charles asked.</p><p>“Yes,” Rosa said to him. “No,” she said to Jake.</p><p>“Yes!” Jake said. “I love it.”</p><p>“If she finds out and kills you, I’m not going to stop her,” Rosa said. “I’ll just say ‘I told you so’ to your dead body.”</p><p>“Great!” Jake said. “Then it’s a deal.”</p><p>Rosa groaned to herself as the others went back to their own desks for a change. She could see Natasha over in the break room talking to Hitchcock and Scully. She picked up the file one more time so she could look anywhere else.</p><p>But that had always been part of the problem with being close to Natasha. It was hard to look at anyone else.</p><p>--</p><p>She hadn’t been expecting Natasha to ask to speak to her at all. Natasha knew what kind of agent Rosa had been. After all, Rosa had been her handler for two years and then her partner for the year they were together. So when she did call her name, Rosa thought maybe it was just a formality, something she was doing to appease Captain Holt and not let everyone in on their past relationship.</p><p>She walked into the break room where Natasha had spent the last few hours, closing the door behind her. She made sure not to let a single ounce of emotion show on her face. The one skill she had really learned from Natasha herself.</p><p>She sat down across for her and waited. She expected a question or two, for formality or whatever, and then to be let go to go back to her desk and her own cases.</p><p>“I’d like you on the case,” Natasha said.</p><p>Rosa almost — almost — gaped at her. She was pretty sure shock did register across her face for a while, though, before she was able to rein it back in.</p><p>“Why?” she said.</p><p>“You’re a good detective.”</p><p>“I was a good agent. You don’t know how I am as a detective.”</p><p>“I do my homework.”</p><p>“Okay, fine,” Rosa said. “There are lots of good detectives here.” She looked out at the squad room. “Okay, sure, half of them drive you crazy, and if you take Jake you have to hear about a thousand ‘Die Hard’ references an hour, and sometimes Charles smells and I don’t know why, but they’re good detectives.”</p><p>“I know,” Natasha said.</p><p>“Then why me?”</p><p>“Because I need someone I can trust.”</p><p>Rosa almost gaped at her again. “You trust me?” she said. “The last time I saw you was after you tried to kill me.”</p><p>Natasha’s cheeks colored just a little. That was almost more shocking to Rosa than everything that had come before.</p><p>“You know that wasn’t entirely my fault,” she said quietly.</p><p>Rosa shrugged. She did know. In fact, she had never blamed her for it really. But it still didn’t change the fact that it was the last time she had seen her. There hadn’t been anything after that. No apology, no reaching out, nothing.</p><p>“You took care of me when no one else did,” Natasha said. “Or would. I trust you.”</p><p>Part of Rosa wanted to snap back that she didn’t trust <i>her</i>, but she knew that wasn’t entirely fair. What had happened between them was one thing, but Natasha had always defended her in the field. She had always had Rosa’s back.</p><p>“Okay,” Rosa said. “I’ll be on the team. But not because of you. Because I want to catch these bastards before they destroy my city.”</p><p>Natasha nodded. “Understood,” she said.</p><p>--</p><p>The new team met together for the first time later that day. In the end, Natasha had picked her, Jake, Amy and Terry to help. Charles had protested loudly at that.</p><p>“But I’m Jake’s sidekick!” he had argued. “And I’ve always wanted a superhero costume!”</p><p>“We’re not going out in superhero costumes,” Amy had said. “Wait. Are we?”</p><p>Natasha looked like she deeply regretted this whole entire situation. It was hard to blame her.</p><p>It turned out the stolen tech was no bigger than a pencil. Natasha showed them a photo, but Rosa noticed she kept it very vague as to what it could actually do. Knowing SHIELD, it could be anything from set off a nuclear bomb to mind control the population of New York with the click of a button.</p><p>“We think it might have been an inside job,” Natasha said. “Which is partly why SHIELD isn’t investigating this on their own. The only people who know you’re helping are me and Agent Fury.”</p><p>She leaned over to pick up a black backpack and placed it on top of a table. Opening it up, she reached in and pulled out a stack of files.</p><p>She turned back to them. “This goes without saying that all of this is incredibly top secret. No one can know anything that goes on here.”</p><p>“Oh nooo,” Jake groaned. “Charles is going to be so upset with me!”</p><p>Natasha shot him a look. “Is that going to be a problem?”</p><p>“Uhhh.” Jake looked around a bit wildly. “Nope. Not at all. I’ll make up a cover story.”</p><p>“I’ll help,” Rosa said.</p><p>Natasha frowned, but she stepped forward and dropped the files on the table the four of them were sitting at.</p><p>“These are the most likely people to be behind it,” she said. “They are the ones who would have known about the tech and have the means to access it.”</p><p>“Ohhhhh,” Amy breathed. “We get to investigate SHIELD agents.”</p><p>Natasha eyed her. “It doesn’t leave this room,” she said.</p><p>“Yes, ma’am,” Amy said. “I mean, Agent Romanoff.”</p><p>--</p><p>The work was hard and not as fun as it might have seemed at first. Rosa watched the frustration start to grow on the faces of her co-workers. She knew they had been dreaming of chasing aliens down Broadway and overturning corrupt government officials, but Rosa knew firsthand that wasn’t always the case with SHIELD. There had always been more paperwork than ops, more training than punching bad guys. </p><p>That part hadn’t bothered Rosa. It was still helping to save the world. It was the lack of privacy she had hated. She’d had a room at the Triskelion, a small little space with just enough room for a bed and a dresser and a table to sit at. But it wasn’t big enough to get away from the people she worked with and then lived with and then also trained with.</p><p>Natasha had never seemed bothered by any of it. In fact, she’d always seemed more amazed that they actually gave her a space of her own and clothes to wear. Rosa understood — Natasha had never had anything of her own before SHIELD — but it was the things like that — things she couldn’t quite explain to Natasha without making Natasha feel like there was something wrong with her — that eventually lead to the end.</p><p>But now here she was, back working with Natasha and on a SHIELD project no less. The hours were long, and the five of them spent an overabundance of time together. Rosa kept as much distance between her and Natasha as possible, choosing to work with Amy or Terry and even Jake when she could.</p><p>But then they caught a break.</p><p>One of the SHIELD agents in the files Natasha had given them turned out to have had the means, the motive and the skill to break into a secure SHIELD location and steal tech that people the agent was in contact with would love to get their hands on. Location tracking and receipts showed him in places where he wasn’t supposed to be on the days in question, and they all had a feeling they had finally found their man.</p><p>“Okay,” Natasha said. “We need to be sure. If we get this wrong, the real thief could set off the tech at a moment’s notice. There’s no room for error here.” She looked around at them like she was expecting someone to disagree.</p><p>“Are we going to track him then?” Jake asked excitedly. “I’m so good at stakeouts.”</p><p>“Actually, yes,” Natasha said.</p><p>Jake cheered. Amy and Terry chimed in. Rosa rolled her eyes and tried to look like she was wondering why they liked eating old deli meat in the car and getting cricks in their necks and being bored out of their minds.</p><p>She was never going to tell anyone that it was all worth it for the moment that you caught the bad man. Or woman.</p><p> “I want you three”  — Natasha pointed to Jake, Amy and Terry — “to take one shift. Rosa and I will take the other. Twelve hours on, twelve hours off.”</p><p>Jake, Amy and Terry looked torn between cheering and staring at Rosa to see her reaction. She just stared at Natasha, expressionless.</p><p>Jake gave in and cheered. “Can we have first shift?” he asked.</p><p>Natasha frowned, her eyes darting to Rosa. “Okay,” she finally said. “Against my better judgment, you can. But you have to check in with me every hour.”</p><p>“Yes, Agent Black Widow!” he said happily.</p><p>--</p><p>To say Rosa was hoping they would confirm the SHIELD agent was the man behind the stolen tech before she ever had to have her shift with Natasha was an understatement. But of course Rosa wasn’t that fortunate.</p><p>She met her at eight o’clock in the garage of the Nine-Nine, next to the car they had been assigned to use. It was the first time she had been alone with Natasha since she had shown back up in Rosa’s life.</p><p>“Ready?” Natasha asked her.</p><p>“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Rosa said. She figured that was close enough to the truth to count.</p><p>She got in the driver’s side and Natasha pulled out a piece of tech from the black backpack she always had with her. A holographic map sprung to life inside the car.</p><p>“Whoa,” Rosa said. </p><p>Natasha smiled. “Some things have gotten a bit more advanced since you left.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Rosa said. She looked at Natasha. “I can see.”</p><p>Natasha peered at the map. “Okay,” she said, pointing to something. “He’s at one of the secure SHIELD bases. We’ll have to park outside and see if he leaves.”</p><p>“Can you tell what he’s doing inside?” Rosa asked.</p><p>Natasha shook her head. “I can see where he is the building, but not what he’s doing. It looks like he’s in his office now.”</p><p>Rosa looked at the other dots moving on the map.</p><p>“Those are all the other SHIELD agents?”</p><p>“Not all of them,” Natasha said. “Just ones that might have something to do with it.”</p><p>“Agents let SHIELD track them now? Is that a requirement?”</p><p>“SHIELD has always tracked us,” she said airily.</p><p>“Aren’t you an Avenger? And they still don’t trust you?”</p><p>Natasha turned her head to look at Rosa. Her expression darkened just a little. But then she turned back to the map.</p><p>Rosa thought she wasn’t going to answer, so she started the car.</p><p>“You’re one of the only ones who ever trusted me,” she said, so quietly Rosa almost thought she had imagined it. “You and Clint and Coulson.”</p><p>Rosa shifted the car into drive. “I’m sure the Avengers trust you.”</p><p>Natasha shrugged. “Maybe.” She didn’t elaborate, but Rosa knew it meant she had never asked them, and they had never had an opportunity to tell her so.</p><p>They parked down the street from the SHIELD base, as close as they could get without attracting attention or seeming suspicious.</p><p>Natasha reached down to pull more stuff from her backpack. Rosa was beginning to think she had tech in there to make it far bigger than it seemed. She pulled out some chocolate bars and bananas and oranges and two deli wrapped sandwiches.</p><p>She handed one to Rosa. “I hope you still like this,” she said.</p><p>Rosa took it from her with a polite thank you. Her mind was spinning. She had a feeling Natasha had wanted to be alone with her for a reason. To go over what had once happened between them? To apologize for something seven years in the past?</p><p>Rosa couldn’t wait anymore. “So why did you really want to have me as a partner?” she asked her.</p><p>“I told you.”</p><p>“You told me why you wanted me on the case. I think you know Jake or Amy or Terry aren’t going to attack you or let you get shot while we’re just sitting in a car.”</p><p>Natasha was studying the hologram map, but Rosa knew it was just an act. That dot had not moved in an hour.</p><p>“Maybe I missed you,” she said.</p><p>“Did you ask them to assign you to my unit of the NYPD on purpose?” Rosa wasn’t sure how she felt about that. If this had all been a set up …</p><p>“No,” Natasha said instantly. She looked up from her map. “Fury gave me the case. He said Holt had volunteered you all. I just … didn’t argue when he gave it to me.”</p><p>Rosa frowned. Holt had made it seem like they were chosen. But Rosa had learned to read Natasha Romanoff a long time ago, and she had a feeling she was telling her the truth now.</p><p>“Did Fury know?” Rosa said, deciding not to mention what Holt had said. “That it was my unit?”</p><p>“Is there anything Nicolas Fury doesn’t know?”</p><p>So he had known. And he had … what? Picked her on purpose. It sure seemed that way.</p><p>“He always thought you were a good agent,” Natasha said, as if reading her thoughts. “Maybe he thought we were a good team.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Rosa said.</p><p>They drifted into silence until Natasha spoke again. “Do you like it? Your job now?”</p><p>“Yes.” Rosa nodded. “It’s not saving the world but it’s still saving people. And I get to go to my own home at night.”</p><p>“I’m glad you’re happy.”</p><p>Rosa didn’t bother correcting her. She was happy enough, she had decided long ago. “Are you happy?” she asked Natasha instead.</p><p>Natasha shrugged.</p><p>“You know, you deserve to be happy,” Rosa told her, but Natasha was already shaking her head.</p><p>“No, I don’t,” she said.</p><p>Rosa thought back. Natasha had been so young then, so inexperienced in so many ways. She was the most dangerous woman in the world and could change identities like people change clothes, but understanding what having a friend, having a girlfriend, meant had been so overwhelming to her. Love, to Natasha, was an unfamiliar concept, in any form.</p><p>Rosa remembered the first time she had given her a birthday present — a small locket — and she had destroyed it, so sure it was something that was going to be used against her, and how she had cried when Rosa had gotten her another one exactly the same, explaining gently to her that it was because she cared about her and that she deserved to have something that was her own.</p><p>She also remembered that night, curled up in bed together, Rosa running her fingers through her long red hair, when Natasha whispered about all the horrible things she had done and how she was never going to be able to atone for half of them, yet alone all of them.</p><p>Rosa had tried to tell her it wasn’t her fault — she knew enough of Natasha’s past to know she had been a brainwashed child who had just been trying to survive — but Natasha had never believed anything good about herself, unless it was about how deadly a killer she was. The Red Room had made sure of that, and Rosa had a feeling some things really hadn’t changed.</p><p>“Everyone deserves to be happy,” Rosa started, but before she could expand more, Natasha had suddenly sat up straighter, her finger on the map.</p><p>“He’s moving!” she said. “He’s coming out. Let’s go!”</p><p>--</p><p>It took another week until they had gathered all the proof they needed that they had the right man and to understand exactly where the stolen tech was being kept. Rosa was almost a little sad when Natasha declared the stakeouts over. Despite her initial reservations, it was nice spending time with Natasha.</p><p>Most of the time, they had kept the conversations light. Rosa told her about Nine-Nine cases, and Natasha told her about being an Avenger.</p><p>But on what turned out to be the last night, as they sat together, eating the turkey sandwiches Natasha had purchased for them, Natasha had brought it up out of nowhere.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” she said. She was looking at the holographic map, and she didn’t turn her head to look at Rosa.</p><p>Rosa finished the bite that was in her mouth. “For what?”</p><p>“Trying to kill you.” Natasha’s voice had dropped to barely above a whisper.</p><p>Rosa felt her heart skip a beat. It had been seven years since that awful day. The last she had seen of Natasha back then was Clint loading her limp form into an unmarked car. For the next six years, she hadn’t even known if Natasha was still alive, if she was still a SHIELD agent. Not until she had become an Avenger.</p><p>Rosa hadn’t expected her to ever apologize for it, not after all this time.</p><p>“You said it yourself,” Rosa said quietly. She turned her head to study Natasha, who was still staring at the holographic map as if it were the most interesting thing she had ever seen. “It wasn’t your fault.”</p><p>“I should have known better.”</p><p>Rosa licked her lips. Her mouth felt dry. “That’s why they’re called triggers, Natasha. Not even the SHIELD psychiatrists knew you still had one.”</p><p>“I should have known.” Natasha finally turned her head. The streetlight outside glinted down, making the unshed tears in her eyes stand out more.</p><p>Rosa felt her breath catch. She remembered that night, walking into her apartment after her first day at the police academy, sensing the presence of someone before she could see her. But most of all, she remembered Natasha’s eyes, how blank they were. She hadn’t looked like that since they had first brought her into SHIELD, a young girl who didn’t know anything else except how to kill.</p><p>She’d managed to knock her out, to tie her up once she did, to call Coulson, who was her new handler. She remembered the way Clint, her new partner, had picked her up, explaining how they’d had a really bad mission, how Natasha had been taken hostage for a few hours.</p><p>“I think they did something to her mind,” he had said, and Rosa had bitten her tongue so she wouldn’t retort how that was pretty obvious. </p><p>She remembered how Coulson had apologized over and over, even after Clint had gotten Natasha in the car.</p><p>“She’s not taking you leaving very well,” he had said then, and patted her on the shoulder. “She’ll be fine, though. She’s strong. And she’s not your responsibility anymore.”</p><p>It hadn’t made her feel any better than. It still didn’t make her feel any better now.</p><p>She started to reach up a hand, but she stopped. Natasha was a stakeout partner and her superior for this mission, nothing more. </p><p>Instead she put her hand down and then looked outside so Natasha could compose herself in private.</p><p>“I shouldn’t have left you like I did,” Rosa said. “I should have talked to you.”</p><p>“You didn’t owe me anything,” Natasha said.</p><p>Rosa wanted to tell her how she disagreed with that. They had never actually told each other they loved each other — Rosa didn’t do that type of thing, and Natasha hadn’t known how — but Rosa knew they had. And because of that, she should have done more than walk out on her one day, just because she decided she couldn’t take it anymore.</p><p>But that was in the past. They were here now.<br/>Rosa took another bite of her sandwich to process her thoughts. After swallowing, she turned to her once again. Natasha must have wiped her eyes, because she looked perfectly composed.</p><p>“I don’t blame you for that night,” Rosa said. “I never did. But thank you for apologizing.”</p><p>Natasha nodded. “I just want us to be good.”</p><p>“We’re good.”</p><p>--</p><p>They met after midnight a week after they first started the stakeouts, all of them dressed in black. Jake and Amy were practically bouncing with excitement; Rosa knew this was the moment they had been dreaming about since Natasha first walked into the Nine-Nine. Terry looked slightly more composed, but Rosa could tell her was ecstatic as well.</p><p>Natasha handed out tech that was far fancier than anything the NYPD would ever give them.</p><p>“We get in, we get the tech first and then we go after him,” Natasha said. “Everyone got it?”</p><p>They all nodded.</p><p>“Okay,” she said, and then added, “And stay safe, alright?”</p><p>“If we do a good job, do you think they’ll recruit us for the Avengers?” Rosa heard Jake whisper, probably to Amy.</p><p>Natasha obviously heard him too. “No,” she said immediately.</p><p>“Dammit,” Jake said.</p><p>The raid was happening at a warehouse on the outside of town.</p><p>“Why is it always a warehouse?” Jake asked. “Is that in the bad guy handbook?”</p><p>They got into position. Rosa and Natasha were covering the front. Jake, Amy and Terry were taking the back.</p><p>“The tech first,” Natasha reminded them. “If you see someone coming, hide!”</p><p>She glanced up at Rosa. “Ready?” she asked.</p><p>“Just like old times,” Rosa replied, and then almost wished she hadn’t. For a second she saw a flicker of something — hurt? disappointment? — flick across Natasha’s face and then it was gone.</p><p>“Go!” Natasha whispered into the comm on her wrist and then she tapped a button to turn it off.</p><p>Rosa followed her in, gun drawn. From the intel they had, there was an office toward the front that had a safe, the most likely spot for the tech to be hidden.</p><p>That part all went well. Natasha had the safe open almost faster than Rosa could blink. It was as soon as Natasha slipped the stolen tech into the safety of her pocket that everything went to hell.</p><p>Flashes filled both the room and the hall almost instantly, the sound of banging seeming to emanate from everywhere, making it hard to discern where the shooting was originating from — or if it even was shooting. In the distance, Rosa could hear shouting, and she thought it was probably the other three, but before she could move to go to them, she was suddenly surrounded by an army of people in black.</p><p>Every ounce of training Rosa had ever had, from SHIELD and the NYPD, suddenly kicked in, and it was like she was back in time, kicking men, toppling them over, elbowing them exactly where she knew would bring them down. Furniture and fists were flying. It was so hard to see.</p><p>And then Rosa turned, after successfully knocking out another man, to see a gun pointed directly at her head.</p><p>She didn’t have time to blink, to scream. She saw the finger move, and in that second, she knew she had failed. It was over.</p><p>Except it wasn’t because something hit her hard in the side and she went flying across the room, crashing to the floor, her head striking the ground with a sickening crash, and then everything went black.</p><p>--</p><p>She was out for only a couple minutes, but when she opened her eyes, everything was quiet. Bodies were everywhere. She could hear someone — Amy — calling her name.</p><p>“Rosa! Rosa! Rosa!”</p><p>She sat up, blinked, turned her head and let out a sound she hadn’t known she was capable of making.</p><p>Terry had an unconscious Natasha cradled in his arms, her head and her chest against his chest, his hand pressed against the bullet hole in her chest. There was blood everywhere — on Terry’s hand, on Natasha’s chest, on the floor.</p><p>And Rosa knew. With a heart-sinking, gut-wrenching, nauseating certainty, Rosa knew — Natasha had knocked her out of the way. Natasha had taken the bullet for her.</p><p>Natasha had saved her life.</p><p>--</p><p>Natasha was unconscious for almost forty-eight hours. Rosa spent most of that time sitting by her side and watching her.</p><p>Holt hadn’t said anything about it when he came to check on both of them, and Director Fury, who had come by to see Natasha, had only nodded at Rosa like it was completely normal for her to be there. </p><p>Rosa was sitting in a chair beside Natasha’s bed, reading some case files of other Nine-Nine cases that were awaiting her return, when she heard a soft whimper from the woman beside her.</p><p>She dropped her files as Natasha’s eyes fluttered open. She watched as Natasha drew in a deep breath, and Rosa could almost see her analyzing the entire situation. And then she turned her head, focusing on Rosa.</p><p>“Did we catch them?” she asked. She looked pale and tired, but the doctors had assured everyone that she would be fine, after a period of rest.</p><p>“We got them,” Rosa said. “And tech safely returned, thanks to you.”</p><p>“Good.” Natasha managed a smile, and then she frowned. “This isn’t a SHIELD medical facility.”</p><p>“They wanted to take you, but Holt convinced them you were safe here.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“He thought maybe we should talk.”</p><p>“Oh,” Natasha said. She didn’t say anything else.</p><p>Rosa reached for her hand, something she had been tempted to do for the past two days. But she had wanted to wait until Natasha was awake. </p><p>And now she was. And she didn’t say anything as Rosa slipped her fingers between Natasha’s. Her hand was as surprisingly soft as it always had been.</p><p>“You saved my life,” Rosa said to her.</p><p>“Of course I did. I was responsible for all of you. Fury would have killed me.”</p><p>“That’s not why you did it.”</p><p>“Wasn’t it?” Natasha said. Her eyes narrowed.</p><p>“I know you still love me,” Rosa said. She had realized it the last night of the stakeout. It was why Natasha had really come, why she wanted to spend time with Rosa. She had told Rosa that first night that there wasn’t anyone else, that there hadn’t been in years. On that night, Rosa had finally understood why.</p><p>Now, Natasha turned her head away from Rosa, so she was looking at the wall opposite them. </p><p>“You can hide your feelings from everyone in the world, but you can’t hide them from me,” Rosa said softly. </p><p>“Well, what does it matter if I do?” Natasha muttered. She didn’t deny what Rosa said, but she tried to pull her hand from Rosa’s grasp. Rosa held on tighter and took a quick breath. It was now or never.</p><p>“Maybe it matters because maybe I still love you too.” </p><p>Natasha’s head swiveled back toward Rosa. She stared at her, her eyes wide. “Don’t say that if you don’t mean it,” she whispered.</p><p>Rosa bent down, kissed her softly on the lips and then pulled away, just a couple inches. She could feel Natasha’s breath on her face. “I mean it,” she said.</p><p>Natasha’s eyes filled with tears, but this time she didn’t wipe them away or turn her head. Instead she leaned toward Rosa, kissing her again.</p><p>Rosa’s grip on Natasha’s hand tightened, the fingers of her other hand threading through red curls. Something in her chest seemed to burst apart, filling her heart with light and happiness maybe?</p><p>Behind her, there was the sound of footsteps. Then a scream. And then Jake’s voice.</p><p>“Oh my god! Rosa’s kissing Black Widow! They’re dating! I win!”</p><p>Rosa would have rolled her eyes, but she was too busy kissing Natasha. She would deal with Jake another time. Natasha could help. There would be lots of time for that later.</p>
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